


The Swimmer's Monologue

by VOlympianlove



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Swimming, sport au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-16
Updated: 2016-09-16
Packaged: 2018-08-15 07:24:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8047615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VOlympianlove/pseuds/VOlympianlove
Summary: Where Yixing goes through the motions of his favourite sport.





	The Swimmer's Monologue

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [The_Game_Season_2016](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/The_Game_Season_2016) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> the self propulsion of a person through water using the entire body in coordinated movement of the limbs and body. A team or individual sport.

The pool was always empty at that time of the day. Hardly anyone ever went in so early, when the sky was still dark and the birds were quiet. The lane ropes had not been laid out so there was no restriction of space, just a flat plane of blue reflecting the darkness of the sky. 

Yixing always loved the silence of the mornings. His eyes gazed out across the pool as he set down his things. The smell of chlorine invaded his nostrils as he stepped out to dip his toes at the edge of the pool, goggles dangling from his fingertips. 

A sense of calm spread over him as he snapped the elastic over his head and stepped up onto the starting block. He dropped into a crouch, toes curling over the edge of the block, fingers tightening around the block. Adrenaline rippled through him as he pushed off, wind whistling past his ears as his arms pulled up to lock behind his head and he sliced through the water without a sound, the liquid parting around his body before enveloping him like a lost lover. 

He flexed his abdomen, moving into a dolphin’s kick and surfaced, one arm instinctively reaching out to pull water backward. The only sound he could hear was the thumping of his heart and the soft splashes as he carved his way through the water. 

All too soon, the wall rose up in front of him and he took a breath before dropping his arms and flipping forward, the world around him tilting and slowing. For a moment, he seemed to be suspended in time before the balls of his feet struck the wall at the perfect angle and he pushed off, arms pulled next to his ears in a streamline position. 

His muscles flexed and his diaphragm constricted as his lungs burned for air. With a burst of speed, he pushed himself through the water, slicing through the surface with a fluid motion. He yanked his head up, snatching a quick breath before turning back down, white foam rippling all around him as he plunged forward. His arms moved like a well-oiled machine with the only indication of him being human was the slight burning in his lungs as he pushed on, turning his hips and reaching forward. 

The world slowed once more when the dark blue ‘T’ painted on the bottom of the pool emerged in his sight and he finished his half pull, flipping once more and ricocheting off the wall. He lost track of time and space as he moved through the water, the world blurring into white and blue. His goggles fogged but he seemed unaware as his arms sliced through the water. 

The pads of his fingers brushed against the wall just as the first bell rang, signaling the beginning of the day as he finished his pull and he slowed, bringing his feet beneath him. He was panting, chest heaving up and down as he reached up to pull off his goggles. 

The air was cold, the wind whipping harshly at his bare skin as he pulled himself out of the pool. The sky had remained dark as storm clouds blew over the horizon and he shivered, snatching up his towel. His fingers fumbled as he packed his things into a gym bag. A glance at the giant clock face on the far side of the pool told him that he had only a half hour to get himself presentable before class.  
//

“Hey babe.” Yixing could not help the smile that spread across his face when he stepped out of the bathroom, the tips of his hairs still damp from his shower. His boyfriend of three years stood outside with a gym bag slung over his broad, broad shoulders and two cups of coffee in his abnormally large hands. 

Yifan was a basketballer, tall with honey golden hair that he often put up in a quiff for class. Yixing always felt that he was the luckiest person alive to have snagged his attention. He took the coffee from him and wrapped one arm around Yifan, snuggling into his chest. 

“Thank you.” He mumbled and Yifan bent his head, stealing a kiss. A low rumbling startled them apart and Yixing glanced up at the sky. It had started drizzling, small droplets of rain falling on the concrete.

“Come on. Let’s get to class before we get soaked.” Yifan tugged off his jersey and draped it over his boyfriend easily. Before he could protest, Yifan was already running out into the rain, a teasing smile etched on his handsome face. 

“Yifan!” Yixing laughed and chased after him, shoulder bag hitting his thigh repetitively. 

//

“Warm ups. 100 free, 100 back and 100 IM. Four sets.” Yixing winced. He hated doing the backstroke. But the coach was going relatively easy on them. He snapped the elastic band of his goggles over his head and dived into the water, his teammates following close behind. His movements became mechanical as he swam, his mind wandering away from what he was doing to other things. 

The only thing that pulled him out of his thought was the appearance of the dark blue ‘T’ shape in the water, signaling for him to turn. He flipped off the wall and set off again, keeping a relatively easy pace so as not kill himself with the next sets. After all, there were still three more to go. 

His breathing was still relatively even as he came up for air, hand going up to grasp at the side wall. Grabbing his water bottle off the pavement, he turned around and surveyed the pool. His teammates were still swimming their laps though he suspected that Luhan was close to being finished because he had been close behind him when they started. 

Sure enough, his best friend’s hand touched the wall only moments later, the boy himself coming up for air. He flashed Yixing a brilliant smile before reaching past him for his own bottle. 

Yixing swallowed down his mouthful and plopped his bottle down, moving aside just in time to avoid blocking the next boy who had just finished his sets. 

“Coach is being easy today, don’t you think?” Luhan commented as he swigged his water. Yixing nodded just as the last person in their lane touched the wall. They all crowded around the pool walls as their coach walked up to them. 

“Alright, lane 5 and 6, eight hundred meters freestyle pulling on seven minutes.” The coach grinned at all the groans that echoed around him as he tossed the pool buoys into the water. Yixing exchanged a look with Luhan and his friend grimaced at him. 

“Ready? And go!” Luhan plunged forward, pool buoy tucked neatly between his legs. Yixing’s eyes flickered to the giant yellow clock that he had helped lug out of storage at the beginning of the training. 

The digital numbers ticked on and as the digits turned to the number 8, the swimmer was pushing off, using as much of his core muscles as he could without moving his legs. Yixing loved freestyle. It was his favorite stroke because it was familiar. 

Soon his ears blocked out all the noise of the others joining in and all he could hear was the steady thumping of his heart. It had never been a struggle for him to pace himself and finish long distance swimming because he had never thought once of swimming competitively until then. Swimming had always been a hobby, a stress reliever. 

As his arms went through the more than familiar motions, his mind wandered back to the first time he had been exposed to the sport. He could remember that afternoon as if it had happened yesterday. 

It had been a hot day, the kind where the sun was friendly and yellow. He could remember how the rays of the sun had made the swimming pool glitter like it was covered in crystals. He was five and very excited because his father was going to teach him to swim for the first time in his life. 

They went down together as a family, with his little brother toddling along with floaties attached to his tiny arms. His mother attended to him, rubbing him down with sunscreen while Yixing followed his father into the deeper waters. He had floaties as well, the bigger ones that hurt slightly as they dug into his skin. The water was cold, so refreshingly cold. 

His father helped him to tug the floaties off and his strong hands kept Yixing afloat. Yixing remembered him holding his hands, teaching him to kick and float before dropping his hands to watching him maneuver himself in the water. 

Yixing had never been afraid of drowning because his father had never let him experience that. In his mind, the water was always safe. He was always comfortable in the water. In his early years, he had spent so many afternoons in the swimming pool, playing and learning strokes by himself and sometimes through the coaching of his father, though it was rare. After he had been assured that Yixing would not drown if left alone in the water, his father had left him to his own devices.

Yixing taught himself most of the strokes just by watching his father swim and the freestyle was the primary stroke he did for most of his years. He passed all three tests for swimming in his school in two years when others took three. Yet he had never considered swimming competitively, until now. 

The blue “T” in the water loomed in front of his eyes and he accelerated, finishing his half pull and executing a perfect tumble turn before shooting off the wall, mind still half in his memories. He could see Luhan slowing down in front of him, probably from fatigue. The brunette shifted to the center of the lane and lengthened his strokes, feeling his heart rate pick up slightly. He powered forward until he was neck in neck with his best friend. With a burst of speed that he would probably regret later, he overtook Luhan to be first in line.

The number of laps he had to do blurred in his mind as he swam. He could feel his arms tiring and his lungs starting to feel strained. Immediately, he switched from allowing his mind to wander, to counting strokes. He kept his heart rate in check as the numbers in his head ticked past. 

_One._

_Two._

_Three._

_Four._

As steady as the metronome his teacher insisted he used whenever he played the piano. He could almost hear the annoying ticks in his head and it helped steady his heart rate. Soon he could feel his heart beating along with the mantra he kept chanting in his head. His arms stopped feeling and he let his eyes slide half closed beneath his goggles. His mind slipped into a half asleep state and his arms moved mindlessly, easily. 

It was with a jolt when he flipped off the wall, that he remembered he had to know how many laps he had done. While Coach was very forgiving, he always expected them to know exactly how much they were swimming, not swim blindly. A quick count through and he was off again, the number of laps stored in the back of his mind.

//

Yixing sighed in relief as Yifan pressed his knuckles into the knots of his muscles. His boyfriend always gave heavenly massages. Swimming was not a difficult sport but it could be tedious. It was constant repetition, constant training. A missing training could easily throw him off his game. But despite all of that, Yixing found that he could not live without that breathlessness the water gave him, the adrenaline rush that he experienced every time he leapt off the plunging board, body slicing cleanly through the water.

It was what he was meant to do.


End file.
